


say, “Believe me”

by untilitbreaks



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, Iwaizumi Hajime Is So Done, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28674444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/untilitbreaks/pseuds/untilitbreaks
Summary: “Ooh, you wanna kiss me so bad,” Tooru taunts, and Hajime’s heart skips a beat, because it’sso trueand Tooru doesn’t even realize it.Tooru doesn't get it. He doesn’t know that Hajime has wanted Tooru to kiss him since he’d first realized that he liked boys, which was because of Tooru in the first place. Tooru doesn’t know that Hajime will do whatever it takes to make him happy, but he wants him so badly it hurts some days.“And what if I do?” Hajime blurts.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 15
Kudos: 172





	say, “Believe me”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! It’s been forever (read: two and a half years) since I last posted a fic for Haikyuu, and I’m beyond excited. I had The Most fun with this! I hope you all enjoy!!
> 
> This was written for [#writethisyourstyle_p8](https://twitter.com/writethisacc?s=21), which is hosted by a good friend of mine - Soph, thank you also for betareading this even though you aren’t familiar with the HQ boys!!

They don’t even step foot off the bus before cheering erupts.

Tooru is the first to climb down, of course; as captain and the source of the crowd of girls waiting for him, none of the other team members are brave enough to risk it. The third years look at each other and roll their eyes, and one or two of the first years look shocked, like they can’t imagine that the attention following Tooru has doubled compared to the usual amount that already disrupts their school lives and practices.

The first year students that had graduated from Kitagawa Daiichi last year, however, are unphased. “Nothing’s changed,” Kindaichi says, rubbing at his face and sighing. Next to him, Kunimi stands, stony-faced as he watches Tooru accept a box of chocolates from the girl who has fought her way to the front of the pack.

“Not at all,” Hajime growls. He grits his teeth and braces himself before following Tooru off the bus. Per usual, a few of the girls glance his way, but their interest in him stems primarily from their interest in Tooru, and most of them dislike him, anyway, threatened by the close friendship he has with Tooru.

Realizing that it’s safe, the rest of the team slowly files after him, en route to their locker room. Their first game is in about forty-five minutes, meaning that they’ll barely have time to warm up after Hajime gives them a pep talk to focus them again after Tooru had thoroughly distracted the team.

Sometimes, Hajime thinks that he governs Aoba Johsai’s volleyball club more than Tooru does, even though he’s vice captain and his playing style relies on none of the flashy moves that have landed Tooru on the cover of numerous magazines featuring up-and-coming players across Miyagi. He’s very happy with his own role in the team, thank you very much, but he’d also like to note when credit is due.

He mutters about this as he yanks open the door to their rented locker room and points to where the first year students should store their belongings. He really didn’t sign up for babysitting when he agreed to be Tooru’s vice captain, but he should have known that Tooru would only become even more stupidly attractive as he grew older.

“You really have to talk to him,” Takahiro says, clapping Hajime on the shoulder as he walks by. “I know you think that Oikawa’s fan club is going to distract the first years, but  _ I _ think you’re more distracted than any of them.”

Hajime is, in fact, too distracted to give Takahiro a proper response. Fuming, he tugs on his jersey and ties his shoelaces, trying to pretend that he’s living in a world where his teammates aren’t overly suspicious of his relationship with his childhood best friend and Said best friend isn’t increasingly too busy with flirting with girls he doesn’t have any attachment to to pay attention to him— _ or, _ more importantly, to fulfill his duties as captain.

Tooru doesn’t make it to their locker room until most of the team is ready and have gone to warm up, led by Takahiro and Issei. Tooru’s cheeks are flushed and he has an annoying grin on his face, the one he always wears after he’s gotten the attention he searches for, and Hajime has to take a deep breath to stop himself from making a scene in front of the remaining team members straggling behind in the locker room.

(It’s too late for that. Most of the team has seen Tooru and Hajime argue until they’re both hoarse or Tooru is crying or Hajime walks away without apologizing at least once. They always make up, though, because they’re meant to be together the way childhood best friends are supposed to be. They always come back to each other.)

As if on cue, one of the fan letters stacked in Tooru’s arms falls to the ground.

Hajime sees red.

“Hey, Shittykawa,” he snaps, and the last two second years who had been lingering by their lockers quickly scuttle out of the room, familiar with the sound of the beginnings of an Iwaizumi-Oikawa pre-game argument. Tooru lets out a small “eep!” of surprise, tripping over his own feet and spilling a few more letters.

“Dumbass,” Hajime scolds. Despite his disapproval of Tooru’s fan club, he crouches down to pick up the letters anyway, if only out of respect for the girls who had given them to him. A few of the envelopes show clear signs of hard work and care put into them, decorated with elaborate trim and hearts and bubble letters. “What if you hurt yourself? We need you. We haven’t even played a single game yet.”

“Glad to know that you need me, Iwa-chan,” Tooru purrs, unbothered by Hajime’s harsh tone. He sits down on the bench in the center of the locker room and deposits his gifts neatly beside him with a loving pat that makes Hajime a bit nauseous.

“Not I,  _ we _ ,” Hajime mutters, but his words are lost on Tooru, who has begun— _ very slowly _ —unzipping his bag. “Come on, Tooru, hurry or you won’t have time to warm up.” He should probably ask permission before touching Tooru’s things, but he’s done this more than a few times, so he bats Tooru’s hands away and digs through his bag for his knee brace. He tosses Tooru’s regular knee pad into his lap for him to put on and undoes the straps on his knee brace. He kneels down to help Tooru with the brace like he has so many times before, although not recently, as most of his pre-game anxiety has eased now that his physical therapy is going well.

This gets Tooru’s attention. His brows furrow as he looks down at Hajime. “Is something wrong?” he says. “Are you upset with me?”

Truthfully—Hajime doesn’t know how he feels. He’s nervous, because he hasn’t had time to mentally prepare himself for the game they’re going to play in less than twenty minutes. He’s frustrated, because he shouldn’t be worried about something as simple as the practice of making it out to the court on time. He’s a little angry, too, because, well.

Tooru isn’t  _ supposed _ to pay any mind to the girls that are clamoring for his attention. He’s supposed to wave and say thank you and then forget that anything else but the court exists in the world. He’s not supposed to plaster on a sickeningly fake smile and play into the love and attention that his fans give him, he’s not supposed to be as charming as he is.

He’s not supposed to engage in something that Hajime doesn’t understand at all. He’s not supposed to flirt and go on dates every Friday night and show up late to practice because he was busy being confessed to by yet another one of the girls on the volleyball team. None of these things are completely new, not really, but it’s  _ different _ , somehow, and Hajime can’t quite kick the feeling that maybe there’s something behind it, that there’s a reason why something has changed this year.

“I’m not upset with you,” Hajime says, but his tone easily gives away his bluff, especially to someone like Tooru, who has grown up with him and knows almost everything about him. “Listen, I just want to focus on today’s games. I don’t want anything to compromise the team’s focus.”

Hajime yanks the straps of Tooru’s brace a little too tight around his knee, making him wince. Instantly, he feels guilty. Takahiro was right that his judgement is clouded by his emotions, loath as he is to admit it. He knows that he’s being unfair. When it comes down to it, Tooru’s fan club beefs up the cheering squad that encourages their players from the stands, standing above Seijoh’s turquoise  _ Rule the court _ banner. They support the whole team—not just Tooru.

“If you’re so mad at me then why are you taking care of me?” Tooru demands. Irritation bleeds into his tone, but he doesn’t move away, letting Hajime fiddle with the placement of his brace. “You don’t have to wait around for me. I don’t want to hold you up.”

His arms are crossed over his chest and his chin is tucked as though he’s self-conscious. If the problem hadn’t been going on for so long, Hajime would have felt more forgiving at this admission of self-awareness, something he wouldn’t have otherwise guessed could come from someone as occasionally oblivious and self-gratifying as Tooru.

What tips Hajime over the edge, though, is the fact that Tooru is  _ right. _ Hajime doesn’t have to wait for Tooru and he certainly doesn’t have to put on his knee brace for him—what was he  _ thinking? _

“I just don’t think this is how you want to spend your last Inter High,” Hajime spits. He lets go of Tooru’s knee and balls his hands into fists, still crouched down to adjust Tooru’s brace, his body rigid with tension.

“Huh? What do you even mean?” Tooru studies Hajime for a moment longer before the realization dawns on him and his expression hardens. “You mean my fans? They didn’t do anything wrong.”

Arguably, they were a distraction to the team, but it would be cruel for Hajime to milk their innocence into something that it isn’t, considering that him keeping the team’s captain from them right before a game is even more detrimental. “I mean the—the  _ girls _ ,” Hajime growls. “Your—your  _ flirting, _ it’s repulsive, I just don’t get why you care so much about them when you’re supposed to be  _ here.” _

(As if this means anything different from his  _ fans,  _ as if Tooru isn’t just as enamored with the male members of his fan club.)

“Why do you suddenly care so much?” Tooru says, his frown deepening. “Why does it matter to you? I wasn’t late, I haven’t done anything wrong. Why?”

Why doesn’t Tooru understand? This is what Hajime was always afraid of: that eventually, Tooru would realize how handsome he is, how hot everyone thinks he is, how he could date anyone he wanted if he was even interested in such a thing, and Hajime wouldn’t be able to share that with him. “I don’t care what you do with them, I just think it’s wrong that you’re playing with their feelings when you don’t actually want to date any of them,” Hajime says, but Tooru is shaking his head before he even finishes speaking.

“Who says I don’t want to date any of them?” Tooru says coolly. Hajime opens his mouth to speak, but Tooru gets to his feet and cuts him off. “Why does it matter?”

As Hajime stands up—almost nose-to-nose with Tooru, if not for their height difference—he asks himself a different question. Since when had Tooru taken serious interest in one of the girls who had confessed to him? Hajime knew that he had been noticing them more, at least, but he could have sworn that the act he played in front of them was just that: an act. He knows what Tooru looks like when he’s being genuine, and the way he treats his fan club is a mix of honesty and false bravado, his attempt at proving that he’s worthy of their love.

All of a sudden, Tooru’s jaw drops. “You’re  _ jealous _ ,” he says. “You wish that you were in my place—no, you wish you were the one I was paying attention to!”

It’s a completely  _ Tooru _ thing to say, and Hajime wishes that it didn’t affect him as much as it does. He wishes that his knees didn’t feel weak at the way Tooru is looking at him, all of his attention  _ finally _ on him. He wishes that Tooru’s guess hadn’t been so accurate, that Hajime could laugh it off and go about his business and lament the fact that he hadn’t made a move later, as he watches Tooru accept more praise from his fans.

He wishes that it wasn’t true, but it is, and Hajime can’t lie to his best friend.

“So?” Hajime demands. His face burns from shame. Distantly, he recognizes that this is not a conversation that they should be having right now, that someone could walk in on them at any moment, wondering where their captain and vice captain are minutes before a game. He recognizes that he’s too flustered to give Tooru the love confession he deserves, one that will make him stand out from the others, who are probably more deserving of Tooru’s love than he is.

Impossibly, Hajime feels himself inch even closer to Tooru, so close he can count each of Tooru’s eyelashes and feel Tooru’s angry huffs on his lips, and he’s so,  _ so _ dizzy with it.

He can’t help the way his gaze drops to Tooru’s lips.

He glances so quickly that Tooru shouldn’t have picked up on it, but of course he does, because he’s  _ Tooru _ . “Ooh, you wanna kiss me so bad,” he taunts, and Hajime’s heart skips a beat, because it’s  _ so true _ and Tooru doesn’t even realize it, because he thinks that Hajime’s feelings are a  _ game _ just like he does those of all of the girls who dream of going on a date with him.

Tooru doesn't  _ get _ it. He doesn’t know that Hajime has wanted Tooru to kiss him since he’d first realized that he liked boys, which was because of Tooru in the first place. He doesn’t know that Hajime wants Tooru to branch out and be free and explore his sexuality, but he can’t pretend that he doesn’t desperately hope that Tooru chooses to do this with him. Tooru doesn’t know that Hajime will do whatever it takes to make him happy, but he  _ wants _ him so badly it hurts some days.

“And what if I do?” Hajime blurts. He watches as Tooru’s eyes grow wide. “What if—what if—”

He can’t bring himself to continue. His chest is tight. He wipes his sweaty palms on his shorts as he waits for Tooru to respond, all of the worst case scenarios he’d come up with when imagining this moment in the past coming to the forefront of his mind.

“Oh,” Tooru says faintly, after a long silence. “You—you weren’t joking?”

“No,” Hajime says. His voice cracks. Tooru’s jaw is slack. He stares at Hajime, stunned. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Tooru whispers.

“Because…” Hajime trails off. He made Tooru uncomfortable, surely. He doesn’t even know for sure that Tooru  _ could _ be attracted to him, never mind him actually being attracted to his best friend,  _ and _ wanting to be with him.

He’s apologizing because this isn’t the right time, because he doesn’t want to take opportunities away from Tooru by boxing him into a relationship with himself, because he already loves Tooru more than he could ever put into words and doesn’t know how to tell him,

“But I want to kiss you, too,” Tooru says, and Hajime’s whole world tilts on its axis.

“You… what?” Hajime chokes, breathless. This… wasn’t supposed to happen. Out of all the possibilities Hajime had considered, he hadn’t thought for a moment that Tooru might actually like him back.

“I want to kiss you,” Tooru says, this time more boldly. “Can I?”

Hajime knows that Tooru isn’t joking this time, because there’s a bit of fear in his eyes, like he’s worried that he doesn’t mean it. Hajime has always been sure of his feelings for Tooru, even though they’ve hurt him in the past, and he’s just as sure about his desire to kiss him.  _ “Yes,” _ he says, and Tooru’s eyes flutter shut.

It only takes the slightest of movements for Hajime to kiss him. Tooru lets out a soft, shaky sigh against Hajime’s lips. It doesn’t feel real, not at all, not after Hajime had spent so much time dreaming about getting to have Tooru like this. His pulse jumps as Tooru kisses him back insistently, one of his hands clutching at the front of his jersey.

Tooru pulls away, just enough to make eye contact with Hajime. And then he pulls Hajime flush against him and kisses him again, this time more rushed, like he’s making up for lost time.

Hajime presses Tooru closer with a hand at the back of Tooru’s head, his fingers tangling in his hair, kissing him deeper, until he forgets about Tooru’s fan club and their upcoming game,

(They make it to the court with only a few minutes to spare, both of them thoroughly warmed up. When Tooru’s fans cheer as he takes position to serve, Hajime smirks and thinks that maybe they aren’t so bad after all.)

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/hopefulgcf)!!!


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